Rawness in the Air: Spicy Sesame Tuna

One of my simple pleasures these days is taking my pup to Prospect Park for a morning romp. Both Manhattan’s Central and Brooklyn’s Prospect Parks offer city dwellers the opportunity to unleash their dogs on pristine dewy grasses in the early morning hours, before any sensible person would dream of setting up a picnic.

City pups spend almost all their walking hours tethered, or cooped up in apartments. A dog’s gotta run, and we dog owners spend our days looking guiltily at our kept dogs. But for a few hours in the mornings, we both get what we want.

Our routine is simple; we go over to Gorilla for a coffee, sometimes I throw on the old-school walkman and listen to a little NPR, and my girl drags me up the hill to the park. The tail goes up, she banters about with some other feisty furballs, I gulp down some fresh air, and we head back home.



Now is an ideal time of year, as we’re in the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving, smack in the middle of fall. No one has the Christmas shopping anxiety yet; we’re all just enjoying soccer, brunch, and football. It’s a lovely time, and the rawness has yet to set in.

Unless you’re a student of The Wooden Spoon. Thrice this week I introduced students to the pleasure that is raw tuna. The first time was to make sushi; the second was served up as a spirited tartare; and third was a teenager’s snack. When an odd-duck recipe like raw fish becomes popular enough that it appears three times in a week, something’s up.

And what’s up is this. Slowly, our country is changing it’s palate. With the global bounty that is available in most mega grocery stores these days, we’re finally starting to stop our “Eeews” and start our “Ooohs”. One of my students, a lovely 13-year old boy, lovingly rolled his seasoned sushi rice in seaweed, filled it with spicy raw tuna, and gave a sample to his housekeeper who had never had raw fish before.

I know this because she told us she had never had raw fish before at least 100 times before she put the thing in her mouth. Buying time? No, she was proud. Proud of herself, and proud of him for taking her to this new place. She popped the maki in her mouth, chewed chewed chewed, complimented him on the intensity of his spicing, and, ta-da style, gave us all a smile of approval.

This is not something that would have happened ten years ago. 13 year old boys in the kitchen making sushi? But here we are in New York City with raw tuna and first-time smiles. There’s a rawness in the air indeed, and it’s delightful.


Spicy Tuna Makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon chili paste
2 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 pound yellowfin tuna, cut into ¼-inch dice


1. In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil, chives, chili paste and mayonnaise; stir until combined. Add tuna and gently mix to coat. Adjust seasonings as needed. Cover, and refrigerate until serving, up to 1 hour.
2. Use as a sushi filling or serve on endive leaves as an upscale hors doevure. Makes an unexpected, delightful start to Thanksgiving!

Note: Make sure to check with your fishmonger to determine that this is very high quality fresh tuna, and OK to eat raw.